Useful Pages

Thursday, December 4, 2014

How much do you know about your family history?

Find out about your ancestors at the Wellesley Free Library!

Ancestry Libraryallows you to search family history databases, including vital records, census records, ship passenger lists, military records, and so much more! *This resource is available for use inside the library.*

Heritage Questcombines searchable images of U.S. federal genealogical census records with digitized books containing family and local histories from around the country. This online resource is available both in the library and at home with your library card.

For more information about Ancestry and Heritage Quest, stop by the Reference Desk!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

On November 19th, the National Book Foundation presented the winners of the National Book Award for 2014. Ursula Le Guin received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for her impact on American literature. Check out her remarks regarding book publishing in America which everyone is talking about!

Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her
father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia
will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing
act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into
chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been
slowly pulling them apart.

With its ability to make lists of companies from a 24 million business
database or find information on a particular company—including sales
volume, demographics, employee numbers, competitors’ reports, company tree—you are ahead of the crowd and on the road to success in pursuing answers.

You get the
picture! So take a tour of what ReferenceUSA has to offer you with your
library card or sign up for a class in Jackie’s Room on Tuesday,
November 18th from 2-3 pm!

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

2. Nazi Scienceby Mark WalkerIn this book, Mark Walker examines the impact of Hitler's regime on science and, ultimately, on the pursuit of the German atomic bomb. Why did German nuclear physicists like Heisenberg and Weizsacker collaborate with the Nazis? How close were the Nazis to getting their own atomic bomb? What does this say about the role of science in the modern world?

The remarkable story of
James Howard "Billy" Williams, whose uncanny rapport with the world's
largest land animals transformed him from a carefree young man into the
charismatic war hero known as Elephant Bill. Elephant Bill's exploits
would earn him top military honors and the praise of famed Field Marshal
Sir William Slim. Part biography, part war epic, and part wildlife
adventure, Elephant Company is an inspirational narrative that
illuminates a little-known chapter in the annals of wartime heroism.

4. The Price of Gloryby Alistair Horne The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.

The First World War is one of history's greatest tragedies. In this remarkable and intimate account, author G. J. Meyer draws on exhaustive research to bring to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe's mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today. The First World War is one of history's greatest tragedies. Meyer brings to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe's mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today.

6. A Great and Glorious Adventureby Gordon CorriganIn this captivating new history of a conflict that raged for over a century, Gordon Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power that have shaped a millennium of Anglo-French relations.The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance and large parts of the country that had been at one time Norman or, later, English. Corrigan writes a gripping narrative of the great battles and personalities of the period - Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan of Arc among them.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

We librarians take patron privacy seriously. We do not
divulge borrowing history to anyone—including spouses or parents. Sometimes,
people think we can go back and see everything that they’ve ever taken out. We
can’t and don’t want to.

Unfortunately, we don’t exercise the same control over our
ebook collection, which passes through intermediaries such as Amazon, Overdrive
and Adobe. Several weeks ago, libraries became aware of a data “breach” by
Adobe Digital Editions—a provider of our ebook software. Borrowing information
was being sent to Adobe from individual computers unencrypted and easily
hacked.

The breach (or potential breach) applies to a fairly narrow
slice of ebook users—those using Adobe Digital Editions 4.0 on a computer.
Overdrive apps for mobile devices are apparently not allowing this breach of
privacy.

Since the issue became public, and the ensuing protest from
librarians around the country, Adobe has updated Digital Editions to encrypt
the data sent from your computer.

For the American Library Association’s statement on Adobe’s
fix, click here.

To read about the larger issue of libraries and third-party
digital vendors, see this article in Slate:

In 1217 England was facing her darkest hour, with foreign troops
pillaging the country and defeat close at hand. But, at the battle of Lincoln,
the seventy-year-old William Marshal led his men to a victory that would secure
the future of his nation.

After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was
beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. Popular
history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus
Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this
tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this
myth recreating one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.

Edward Klein delves into the rocky relationship between the Obamas and
the Clintons. An old-school reporter with incredible insider contacts, Klein
reveals just how deep the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons runs,
with details on closed-door meetings buttressed by hundreds of interviews.

The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as
the insecurities of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of
late Imperial Russia. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging
take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished
letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a
book that will surprise people, even aficionados.

A few days into her stop in Paris, Janice meets Christophe,
the cute butcher down the street-who doesn't speak English. Through a
combination of sign language and franglais, they embark on a whirlwind Paris
romance. She soon realizes that she can never return to the world of
twelve-hour workdays and greasy corporate lingo. But her dwindling savings
force her to find a way to fund her dreams again.

A dramatic account of the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev
summit in Iceland by Ken Adelman who was Reagan's arms control director. The
meeting led to negotiations and concessions that neither side had predicted and
laid the groundwork for the most sweeping arms accord in history. From his
position as a participant in these historic events, Ken Adelman is able to
reveal the motivations, relationships, and conversations that led to the
summit's breakthroughs.

Military historian Gordon Corrigan's gripping narrative of
Hundred Years War fought between 1337 and 1453.
Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power
bringing these events refreshingly alive, and giving the great battles and
personalities of the period - Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan
of Arc among them, the full attention and reassessment they deserve.

Carlotta Gall has reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan for
almost the entire duration of the American invasion and occupation. Gall
combines searing personal accounts of battles and betrayals with moving
portraits of the ordinary Afghanis. Her firsthand accounts of Taliban warlords,
Pakistani intelligence thugs, American generals, Afghani politicians, and the
many innocents who were caught up in this long war are riveting. Her evidence
that Pakistan fueled the Taliban and protected Osama bin Laden is revelatory.

Established in 1898 in the heart of Paris, the Hôtel Ritz instantly
became an icon of the city frequented by film stars and celebrity writers. By
the 1920s the bar became a favorite for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest
Hemingway. Mazzeo chronicles life at the Ritz during the Nazi occupation, when
the hotel served as headquarters to the highest-ranking German officers, including
Göring, and home to wealthy patrons (and to the spies among them) who stayed on
in Paris. A hotbed of illicit affairs and deadly intrigue is revealed, as well
as stunning acts of defiance and treachery.

The Holocaust has long seemed incomprehensible, a monumental
crime that beggars our powers of description and explanation. Masterfully synthesizing
the myriad causes that led Germany to disaster, McMillan shows why thousands of
Germans carried out the genocide while millions watched, with cold
indifference, as it enveloped their homeland. Persuasive and compelling, How
Could This Happen explains how a perfect storm of bleak circumstances,
malevolent ideas, and damaged personalities unleashed history's most terrifying
atrocity.